ENBIS: European Network for Business and Industrial Statistics

Statistical Leadership: From Consultant to Effective Leader

21 September 2008, 09:00 – 17:00

Presenter: Roger Hoerl, GE Research
Abstract
Many statisticians in consulting roles would like to enhance their impact on the organizations with which they consult. While statisticians’ contributions may be very significant, all too often the statistician is viewed as playing a supporting, rather than leading role in project success. Similarly, the statistician is often viewed as someone passively giving advice, or performing narrow technical tasks predetermined by others, rather than proactively making things happen and delivering results. Several changes are occurring in our environment that make this situation even more important for us to address. These include corporate downsizing and delayering, which make it more difficult to justify passive consultant roles in the organizational chart, and the enhanced statistical education provided to others both in academia and the private sector (through initiatives such as Six Sigma). Another important change is the proliferation of easy to use statistical software, which allows others to perform lower-level statistical tasks traditionally done by professional statisticians. Perhaps most important is the pervasive impact of the Internet, which now allows sophisticated data analysis to be outsourced to anywhere around the globe quite easily.

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